# 5801a - 2023 First-Class Forever Stamp - Imperforate John Lewis
US #5801a
2023 John Lewis
(Imperforate)
- Honors civil rights leader and Georgia congressman John Lewis
- Pictures photograph taken in 2013 for Time magazine
Stamp Category: Commemorative
Value: 66¢ First Class Mail Rate (Forever)
First Day of Issue: July 21, 2023
First Day City: Atlanta, Georgia
Quantity Issued: 30,000,000 (Includes die-cut AND imperforate stamps. The exact quantity of imperforate stamps is unknown, but it is only a tiny fraction of the total print quantity, making the imperforates much scarcer than traditional die-cut stamps.)
Printed by: Ashton Potter (USA) Ltd.
Printing Method: Offset, Microprint
Format: Panes of 15
Tagging: Nonphosphored Type III, Block Tagged
Why the stamp was issued: To honor civil rights leader and congressman John Lewis (1940-2020).
About the stamp design: Pictures an existing photograph of Lewis taken by Marco Grob for the August 26, 2013, issue of Time magazine.
Special design details: The selvage of the sheet includes a photograph taken by Steve Schapiro in 1963 outside a workshop on non-violent protest in Clarksdale, Missouri.
First Day City: The First Day of Issue Ceremony was held at Morehouse College in the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel, Atlanta, Georgia. It was an appropriate site given Lewis’s civil rights history and service as congressman for Georgia (his district served most of Atlanta).
History the stamp represents: John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was a civil rights activist and politician whose efforts helped end legal segregation in the South.
Lewis was born in the still-segregated state of Alabama. When he was 11, he visited Buffalo, New York, with his uncle and saw firsthand what life was like without segregation. Soon after, Lewis became interested in civil rights. He met Rosa Parks when he was 17 and Martin Luther King Jr. the following year. Lewis organized sit-ins and other protests in Nashville while a student at Fisk University. It was around this time he coined the concept of “good trouble, necessary trouble.”
Lewis joined the Freedom Riders in 1961, facing extreme violence and arrests, but he never backed down. He became the youngest speaker at the 1963 March on Washington, giving his speech right before Martin Luther King Jr.
Lewis went on the serve in the US House of Representatives from 1987 until his death. When Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, Lewis said, “I just wish the others were around to see this day… To the people who were beaten, put in jail, were asked questions they could never answer to register to vote, it’s amazing.” Lewis devoted his entire life to making America a better place for all its citizens.
US #5801a
2023 John Lewis
(Imperforate)
- Honors civil rights leader and Georgia congressman John Lewis
- Pictures photograph taken in 2013 for Time magazine
Stamp Category: Commemorative
Value: 66¢ First Class Mail Rate (Forever)
First Day of Issue: July 21, 2023
First Day City: Atlanta, Georgia
Quantity Issued: 30,000,000 (Includes die-cut AND imperforate stamps. The exact quantity of imperforate stamps is unknown, but it is only a tiny fraction of the total print quantity, making the imperforates much scarcer than traditional die-cut stamps.)
Printed by: Ashton Potter (USA) Ltd.
Printing Method: Offset, Microprint
Format: Panes of 15
Tagging: Nonphosphored Type III, Block Tagged
Why the stamp was issued: To honor civil rights leader and congressman John Lewis (1940-2020).
About the stamp design: Pictures an existing photograph of Lewis taken by Marco Grob for the August 26, 2013, issue of Time magazine.
Special design details: The selvage of the sheet includes a photograph taken by Steve Schapiro in 1963 outside a workshop on non-violent protest in Clarksdale, Missouri.
First Day City: The First Day of Issue Ceremony was held at Morehouse College in the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel, Atlanta, Georgia. It was an appropriate site given Lewis’s civil rights history and service as congressman for Georgia (his district served most of Atlanta).
History the stamp represents: John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was a civil rights activist and politician whose efforts helped end legal segregation in the South.
Lewis was born in the still-segregated state of Alabama. When he was 11, he visited Buffalo, New York, with his uncle and saw firsthand what life was like without segregation. Soon after, Lewis became interested in civil rights. He met Rosa Parks when he was 17 and Martin Luther King Jr. the following year. Lewis organized sit-ins and other protests in Nashville while a student at Fisk University. It was around this time he coined the concept of “good trouble, necessary trouble.”
Lewis joined the Freedom Riders in 1961, facing extreme violence and arrests, but he never backed down. He became the youngest speaker at the 1963 March on Washington, giving his speech right before Martin Luther King Jr.
Lewis went on the serve in the US House of Representatives from 1987 until his death. When Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, Lewis said, “I just wish the others were around to see this day… To the people who were beaten, put in jail, were asked questions they could never answer to register to vote, it’s amazing.” Lewis devoted his entire life to making America a better place for all its citizens.